Hi.

All right, it’s been so long since I posted, I got signed out of WordPress. That never happens. Sorry, folks.

I like to think that after the election, things will get more-or-less back to normal around here. (It’s a nice thought, may or may not be true.) I can’t speak for FJ and SM, but I’ve just been feeling swamped lately — both workwise and lifewise — and finding the energy to write a thoughtful post (or, you know, e-mail friends, call my dad, perform general life-maintenance activities) has been beyond me. On top of that, I’m constantly obsessing about politics, which cuts into time that could be spent obsessing about fat issues. That part, at least, should be over on Wednesday morning. (Unless McCain wins, in which case I’ll be in bed sobbing for about the next 4 years.)

So I’m afraid all I’ve got for you today is another open thread — and a repost of an oldie that will go up after this. I am Twittering a bit, and all I can tell you is, we’ll all keep doing our best to bring you new stuff. But sometimes our best isn’t enough to get a post up.

What have you been reading, Shapelings? Link to some good stuff in comments, wouldja? Self-linking totally welcome.

Hi! I have almost let my poor old blog die completely. I really think it’s the election. I have so much personal psychic energy wrapped up in wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ about this election (not to mention all the physical energy I’m expending canvasing and phone banking on top of other normal life things) that I hardly have any love left to give. I do think I’ll post more post-election, unless I am in bed crying or on the way to Sweden with Tari.

The people that just moved into the house next door are, from what I can tell from very limited interaction, nice people. The wife is a middle aged school councilor, I am not sure what the husband does. Now here is what I do know. There is a large sign on one of their care doors that says along the lines of “call me and ask me how you can loose weight!”. The car is parked in their driveway nearly every time I am coming or going from my house. You can’t miss it short of staring straight at the ground. I have food issues and this stupid sign is bugging the heck out of me. I can avoid fashion magazines and crappy TV that pushes weight loss on me, but I can not avoid the car sitting in the driveway next door. How would you handle the situation? I don’t think I have the nerve to ask them to take the sign off when it is parked there, I am not even sure the sign comes off. I’m not even sure if it should bother me so much, but it does.

This election is killing me. I’m not even capable of holding a normal conversation with people anymore that doesn’t devolve into “Did you see the latest polls?” Terrible. And I’m so invested, that I’m not really sure how I’ll take it if McCain wins. Disturbing.

i have been using the thumbs up and thumbs down under the ads on facebook to complain about every dieting ad i see. i click “other” in the dropdown that comes up so it will allow me to type, and i write things like “seriously – because i am a woman, you assume i am interested in diets?” and “please stop with the goddam diet ads” and “please stop with the unhealthy fad diet ads” and “i am not oprah’s monkey, i am not interested in diets that were on her show. or any diets. thank you.”

Last night, as we were watching Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman AGAIN (I NEVER watched the news until this year), I asked what we were going to do once the election was over. I mean, there won’t be any TV to watch! (At least until Lost and Battlestar return in January). We might have to, *gasp* DO STUFF at night other than sit on our butts and see the same political crap rehashed for the ten billionth time. I think that this election has been like a reality show, only one where we’re actually invested in the outcome.

Also, I found this on the internet this morning, and thought “this has a Kate Harding rant written all over it! I hope that when she is less involved with her regular life that she posts about it!”

And finally, I’m gearing up for National Novel Writing Month! Hooray! This will be my 4th year. I have yet to win, but I have a good feeling this time around.

Turquoise, I’ve been clicking thumbs down too and I didn’t know you could write your own reasons. I am definitely going to have to start doing that! (If I can figure out how; I switched my Facebook language setting to “pirate” and now the opportunities it gives me to reject ads are kind of weird. I think I’ve been clicking “treasonous.”)

I’m trying not to be obsessed with the election but so far I’ve gotten in no less than 3 arguments on someone’s facebook status, which is sad in so many different ways. I love fivethirtyeight, I wish they would give me a job.

My neighbor had a “Marriage=1 man 1 woman” sign in one of the windows for a while. At first I felt scared and threatened. Eventually I got a LGBT sticker for my car. Their sign disappeared after a while.

I’m there with you on the “what if McCain wins” fears. I think Obama has a better chance, but we didn’t think Bush II would get re-elected last time. The whole thing is totally scary. But you know, I have to think that if McCain does win, we’ll just have to fight twice as hard.

Moonlight0806, that would totally bother me as well. I’m not sure what’s to be done about it, though.

A few weeks ago, I was driving my car and the car in front of me had a bumper sticker that read “Animals and plants disappear to make room for YOUR FAT ASS!” What kind of asshole has that on their car? Do they have any fat family members or friends? Do they realize that rich people use more resources, but poor people are disproportionally fatter? I don’t need a bigger house for my fat ass, I don’t drive a bigger car because of my fat ass; I just don’t get this sentiment.

Tomorrow will be 2 months of my blog. I’m debating whether to try to keep up with every-weekday posts or to go to 3 times a week.

I thought the “WW says I should lose weight so I can start living – does that mean I’m a zombie?” post was good, but what is probably of more interest to y’all is The NY Times admitting that exercise doesn’t automatically make people skinny. Yes, Gina Kolata has a byline involved, and yes, I linked to Kate’s excellent “yogaversary” post. :)

I switched my Facebook language setting to “pirate” and now the opportunities it gives me to reject ads are kind of weird. I think I’ve been clicking “treasonous.”)

I am in love with everything about this statement.

My contribution: bizarrely, I don’t think I’ve ever shared with SP my sister’s thoughts on diets. It was shortly after I’d converted to FA and my and my other sister (C) were in the car with the mad one (P), who was dieting and overexercising her way into a dress she’d deliberately bought too small for a function.

Me: Diets don’t work.
P: Yes they do.
Me: No they don’t blah blah 95-98%, harming your body, no long-term health improvement the weight will go back on.
P: I don’t care if the weight goes back on; I just want to be thin for this. And then I can diet again after.
Me: So you are deliberately doing this knowing the weight will go back on?
P: Yeah, but I’ll be thin for the ball. So diets totally do work.
Me and C: *boggle*

Diets work, people! Because you can be thin for one night! And then when the weight goes back on, you can diet and overexercise it off again! Repeat ad nauseum for the rest of your life! Diets — they work! We’re just lazy.

I am dealing with a similar issue with my co-worker who Will. Not. Stop. making skeazy remarks about women, gay people, and, sometimes, PoC. It is driving me insane, but his remarks are always just this side of what could really get you in trouble at work, and the office dynamics are such that complaining to higher ups would be a really extreme step. I’ve started being really snarky but I’m not sure he has the emotional intelligent to pick up on it. At least it helps preserve my sanity. Somewhat.

Oh, also, this line in the first letter in that column made me go back to disliking Prudence:

Your sister is a 20-year-old single mother; that alone indicates she still lacks the ability to understand how acting on her impulses can lead to life-changing events.

I’ve got a blog post up about the ubiquity of sexy Halloween costumes (plus, how to make Palinbangs if you are dressing as her and don’t have bangs) … and be sure to check in tomorrow, when I analyze the utter stupidity of magic people in the Harry Potter universe. I’m sure *that* will get me a ton of love from the fanbase!

I made the folks at my local bookstore giggle a bit the other day when I bought a cookbook on cupcakes and a book about treason in Tudor England. They were as amused as I was at the prospect of someone eating cupcakes while reading about bloody insurrection and torture.

I love my local bookstore.

Oh, and the Mexican Chocolate cupcakes I made the other day tasted beyond awesome! I ate one while watching Pushing Daisies because I didn’t have a pie in the house.

Eve, did that person also have a “lose your cat? look under my tires” bumper sticker? Because those make me literally almost deface people’s cars. It’s all I can do to hold myself back.

You can have pirate as your language on Facebook?? OMG!!

I also thumbs-down every diet ad, and I either choose “misleading,” “offensive,” or “other” and then rant. It would be satisfying if they didn’t keep showing up. They are also making me hate acai berries, even though they are rather tasty.

check out this article on fatness and thinness (obviously written and commented on by a largely biased audience)…i thought it would share it with you since i find it both amusing and infuriating and unfortunately familiar…..

I have rediscovered a FA comic superheroine from my childhood (in Spain, in the 80s): La Gorda de las Galaxias, which translates as something like “Galactic Fatty”. She looks out for all the creatures in the universe and tries to solve their problems without resorting to violence, although she has also been known to use her fists and her big belly to fight the very villainous villains. In the story I’m linking to below, she is angry because a bully is throwing fat hate insults at her, calling her fatso, cow, hippo and elephant, so she repeatedly hits him with her belly. She also stops mid-fight to have a snack, because “in the same way that cars need gas, Fatty needs food to stay in shape” (I have to say this part of the story got me thinking, because it seems to buy into the stereotype that fat people eat all the time; on the other hand, the narrator’s explanation is very matter-of-fact, and it actually makes sense: you DO have to eat if you want to keep your energy levels up, and I like it that she snacks unashamedly). She is fun, fat and female, but she is not MADE FUN OF because she is fat and female. Here’s the link (text in Spanish only but the drawings are more or less self-explanatory):

I succumbed and started a blog. I culled a bunch of posts from my livejournal(s) to upload there, from the last several months since I found SP in the first place.

I have some thoughts on possible other site development stuff but they’ll have to wait for the moment.

I’m not eating healthily for me at the moment (blood sugar control issues) due to stress. I’m having surgery for a massive ovarian cyst and it was supposed to be in 2 weeks but the doctor just pushed it back by a week which has effed up the carefully constructed plans for what to do about work and family members who are coming from out of state to take care of me and so forth.

And now today my boss decided to start being a total ass about the whole thing.

I’m spending a lot of time staring at videos of cute baby animals (other than cats). And being pissed at the universe. RAR!

DRST, you know what I think about whenever I see your handle? About a couple that I heard about who were getting married. Her last name was Horst. His last name was Dyck. She had in theory planned to hyphenate, but it… didn’t work in practice. So they combined last names to be the very classy Dyrst.

That isn’t you, is it?

(That, btw, is a doubly funny story if you know anything about Mennonite culture, but I shan’t trouble you with the explanation.)

Twiste, if you are still here, might I ask you the name of the book about treason in Tudor England. My sister is a budding Tudor historian and I’m always on the look out for the rare occasion that there is a book that she doesn’t have!

I won a copy of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. And It’s All Small Stuff” a couple of days ago (along with a bunch of leadership and management books) and was reading it at work today.
Surprised to say, I liked it.

I’ve been working on a meet up of Fatosphere types possibly Sunday November 9 in Olympia, Washington. Any interested parties can email me at this brand spanking new email address:
fat dot athletes at gmail dot com.

I am trying to stay calm about the elections. I voted. I need to carve my pumpkin, and that’s not a euphemism.

A Sarah, best of luck with your interviews. Break a curriculum.

I had my first real troll, and having learned from the SP example, I made fun of the troll. I hope I did it right.

And I am so looking forward to having Monday off (I’m burning extra vacation time by taking Mondays off for most of Nov & Dec). I may do the “early voting” thing Monday; Tuesday I’d either have vote before work or skip after-work yoga.

@Jae: It’s called Treason in Tudor England: Politics & Paranoia by Lacey Baldwin Smith. My brother the medieval historian approved my choice when I got it home. He said she’s a reliable author.

In the meantime, OMFG!OMFG!OMFG! I just got home from my chorus rehearsal and I’ve got a fucking SOLO!!! I recently started singing again to convince myself that really tiny, fluffy kittens won’t spontaneously combust and the world won’t end if I sing out loud. Now I’ve got a solo and I’m freaking right the hell out running around in mental circles that may have me awake all night long.

What’s more, it’s a spiritual and I’m an atheist. Now I’m worried that a God I don’t believe in is going to strike me down for blasphemy.

My brain is capable of coming up with more irrational panic per sqare inch than the average, I think.

You’re an idiot and know nothing about dogs. Would you be warning her of dangers if it were the roommate’s pet Golden Retriever or Malti-poo? No. You only consider this a perilous situation because it is a pit bull. Calling CPS will result in nothing more than the potential eutanization of an innocent and beloved pet. Perhaps said sister should teach her daughter how to approach and interact with dogs. Or she could just move her ass to a pet-free apartment if she is so concerned. If the dog is comfortable with the kid, the dog is comfortable with the kid. She’s safe, and it doesn’t make one fucking iota of difference what breed it is.

Please kindly remove your head from your ass before answering another question in this way.

I was in a similar position with a semi-solo on my choir tour in Europe ’cause it was a) my first and b) a cappella and terrifying, and the one time me and Marie managed to land it exactly square on the F for the rest of the choir to join us, it was in front of a baffled congregation in Slovakia who clearly had no idea who we were or why we were singing at them. Good times.

In other news, I just got back from seeing Alexia Khadime as Elphaba in Wicked in the West End and, can we? I just. Yelling and scrunching up your face =/= acting. And it certainly =/= acting Elphaba, of all roles. By the end of that show I should be (i) in love with her (ii) wanting to be her and (iii) crying, but it’s just not going to happen when the character is smarter than the actress playing her and, evidently, the director. People! This just isn’t good enough. *theatre huff*

Erin – I’ve had to stop reading the comments to that Megan McArdle article. The classist horseshit being thrown around in comments (“poor people are poor because they’re lazy and stupid and watch too much television – that’s why they’re fat too!”) was making my blood pressure rocket.

be sure to check in tomorrow, when I analyze the utter stupidity of magic people in the Harry Potter universe. I’m sure *that* will get me a ton of love from the fanbase!

Robin/Miss Conduct – just wanted to let you know that I loved your Harry Potter piece! It’s bugged me for ages that magical folk seem to be such idiots. Slytherin – why on earth allow a House of Pure Evil in a school? You would have thought it would have been closed down by now… And very good point about witches with children not working – I hadn’t picked up on that before, but there’s no reason for Molly Weasley not to have a term-time job, given the fact that the youngest of her kids went to boarding school in the second book of the series, especially as we’re always being told how poor they are.

Thanks, Caitlin and Kate. I needed some bucking up. This morning I’m still a little nervous, but I’m girding up my loins, strapping on my lady balls (or ‘Thatchers’), and telling myself I can do this. I may need reminding again, but for the moment, I’m still breathing.

@Miss Conduct, THANK YOU! I love me some Harry Potter, but a lot of these questions bugged me every bit as much as they bug you. I’m glad someone else sees the stupidity of allowing House Slytherin to exist at all.

It also mentions that obese women are at higher risk of unplanned pregnancy, but I disagree with their conclusions on why. I don’t think we actually need a doctor to tell us how you get pregnant, but it might be nice if all of them were aware of, and made their patients aware of the fact that low dose birth control pills (the most popular kind) are slightly less effective if your body is larger. Which kind of should be a no brainer, you need a certain concentration in the bloodstream, and some of us have more bloodstream to cover than others, but whatev.

Emmy – Yes, saw it a while ago, and yes, the “It’s almost as if we were human!” tone gets old…

One thing I just thought of – since many “overweight” and “obese” women are just over the weight limit, could it be they start having sex, go on the pill, gain 10lbs, and then are “overweight” or “obese”? Just a thought….

Thanks for the love, twistie & girlfrommarz. I didn’t dare open that post for comments!

Rowling’s complete blanking out on working mothers has always really bothered me, especially considering her own story. Okay, as one totally defensive fan pointed out, both Neville and Harry’s mother worked after having kids. And one of them was killed, and the other tortured into insanity. Way to represent, J.K.

Plus, it’s weird that none of the Hogwarts professors had families or lives or anything like that. Totally bizarre set-up for a school, and presumably that would be the logical place to show working parents of various stripes!

LilahMorgan, I thought that was part of the Brit boarding-school thing – teachers live in the school, and if they have families the families live nearby. Or has that gone the way of the dodo now, and only survives in books?

One thing I just thought of – since many “overweight” and “obese” women are just over the weight limit, could it be they start having sex, go on the pill, gain 10lbs, and then are “overweight” or “obese”? Just a thought….

*waves* That’s what happened to me!

Also, I got married last Tuesday and WORE A BIKINI AT A SANDALS RESORT. At, um, more than size zero. (Ten-ish, which still makes me thin, I know, but my bikini bottoms were size XL. And I’ve never worn even a tankini in public before.)